Share this Story

Tracking U.S. Religious Preferences Over the Decades

by Linda Lyons, Education and Youth Editor

Every mainline Protestant denomination has lost members

Religion may be as old as humankind, but it is certainly neither
static nor simple. In 1948, Gallup began asking Americans about
their religious preferences using a question that seemed to cover
all the major faiths in the United States at the time: "What is
your religious preference -- is it Protestant, Roman Catholic, or
Jewish?" Sixty-nine percent identified as Protestant, 22%
identified as Catholic, and 4% identified as Jewish 1948.

If we focus solely on responses in those three categories, the
following nearly 60-year trend shows a significant decline among
Protestants, a slight downturn in the number of Jews, and a gradual
increase followed by a gradual decrease in the percentage of
Catholics.

More Religions Offered

In the early years, Gallup limited its data on religion to just
five categories -- Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, "other" and
"none." All non-Catholic Christians were coded as Protestants. But
beginning in the mid-1970s and to the present time, Gallup has
revised its religion demographic to capture more detail. In 1977,
Gallup added "Eastern Orthodox" to the list of religious
preferences offered, and soon after began separating out Mormons
from the Protestant category in the coding of the question (Mormon
was made an explicit option in 2000). Significantly, Gallup began
coding those who said they were "Christian" but did not specify a
religion as a separate category in 1999, and the number falling
into that category has grown since.

While Gallup had always given people the option to say they did
not identify with any religion, it was made explicit in 2000. The
current question, adopted in 2000, asks "What, if any, is your
religious preference -- are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish,
Mormon, Muslim, or an Orthodox religion such as the Greek or
Russian Orthodox Church?"

The percentage identifying as Protestants has clearly declined
in the United States since the late 1940s, but the number of
non-Catholic Christians has been stable around 60% since the early
1980s. In that time Catholic identification has fallen off
slightly, from the high 20% range to the mid-20s. The number of
Americans with no religion has increased steadily, with the
increase showing even before the wording change in 2000.

Probing Protestants

Beginning in 1967, if a respondent identified as "Protestant,"
Gallup asked, "What specific denomination is that?" In addition to
the mainline Protestant denominations -- Baptist, Methodist,
Lutheran, Presbyterian and Episcopalian -- respondents also name
other religions: "Church of Christ," "Pentecostal," or
"non-denominational."

Every mainline Protestant denomination has lost members in the
last four decades (see "Factors in the Slide of Mainline Churches"
in Related Items). Methodists and Baptists have lost the most
members, Presbyterians and Lutherans slightly fewer. Episcopalians,
always the smallest Protestant mainline congregation, have remained
at the same level since 1967.

The Baptists

In 1992, Gallup began to separate Southern Baptists from other
Baptists. While the percentage of people identifying as Southern
Baptist has declined since 1992, the percentages who associate
themselves with other Baptist denominations have remained
relatively stable.

Bottom Line

This Gallup question spurs interesting discussions about many of
the religious faiths measured. For instance, Jewish organizations
like to point out that even though there is a much smaller
percentage of self-identified Jews in the American population than
there was 50 years ago, the actual number of Jews has remained
stable at around 5.5 million. Intermarriage and a general trend of
Jewish assimilation with both secular and Christian culture are
possible factors contributing to the decline of Jewish
identification.

Slightly more Americans agree (52%) than disagree (45%) that the federal government is responsible for making sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. This balance of views is similar to last year.

Americans' daily self-reports of spending averaged $98 in November, up from $93 in October. The latest figure is the highest average recorded for the month of November since Gallup began tracking consumer spending in 2008.